Hi Folks, Through intense study of Microformats I have come to enlightenment regarding information design:
Two Fundamental Principles of Information Design 1. Design information to be resolutely specific and local. 2. Design information to be globally and collectively useful. Example: consider a web designer that embeds a family name in an HTML <li> element, e.g., <li>Costello</li> A second web designer embeds a family name in an HTML <div> element, e.g., <div>Novak</div> A third web designer embeds a family name in an XML <informant> element, e.g., <informant>Smith</informant> A fourth web designer embeds a family name in an XML <pilot> element, e.g., <pilot>Johnson</pilot> A fifth web designer embeds a family name in an RSS <managingEditor> element, e.g., <managingEditor>Parker</managingEditor> Each of these web designers are expressing the family name information in a way that is resolutely specific and local, i.e., in a way that is appropriate for his/her needs. However, the information is not globally and collectively useful: without a-priori knowledge a web tool cannot ascertain that the information within the elements represents a person's family name. That's where Microformats come into the picture. Add the hCard "family-name" subproperty to each local expression: <li class="family-name">Costello</li> <div class="family-name">Novak<div> <informant class="family-name">Smith</informant> <pilot class="family-name">Johnson</pilot> <managingEditor class="family-name">Parker</managingEditor> Now the information is resolutely specific and local; simultaneously, it is globally and collectively useful. Comments? /Roger _______________________________________________ microformats-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://microformats.org/mailman/listinfo/microformats-discuss
